The cleanliness of a housing in which pigs are raised is critical because young pigs are highly vulnerable to disease caused by bacteria. Consequently, the flooring used for pig housings must be configured for easy and thorough cleaning and should also be easy to assemble and disassemble. In addition, the flooring must be configured with slots so that manure passes through the flooring and away from the young pigs without getting caught in cracks or on rough or irregular surfaces of the flooring. Such flooring is cleaned using a pressurized hose which washes off not only the top of the flooring but also the area below the flooring.
Modular flooring systems available to date provide only uniform interconnecting panels in which one configuration of panel is used for the complete flooring. The panels of such systems may be installed in one orientation only. The disadvantage of these systems is that such panels cannot be installed in a rotated orientation and this means that when such panels are installed in an area having dimensions requiring only a portion of a panel the unused portion of such panel is discarded. A further disadvantage associated with such systems is that the panels of such systems do not closely abut the walls of the building or room which is to house the pigs but instead leave openings along the sides of the walls which will plug up with manure and provide a setting for the growth of harmful bacteria. For some such systems left and right hand side insert pieces are sometimes provided to fit into these openings but they often do not fit snuggly, or may pop out, and thereby still leave openings in which manure can collect.
Therefore, there is a need in the pig farming industry for a modular flooring system which can be installed in areas of various dimensions without wasting large portions of panels and in which the end panels smoothly abut the walls of the building or room in which the flooring is installed without leaving spaces between the wall and the flooring.